The Little Boy
by Etaleah
Summary: She hated him, the little boy who would grow up to be just like his father.


**Yay, another story! Don't worry, I haven't abandoned Fear Itself or Suspicion. This just came to me one night. Hope you all like it. **

She pushed with more force than she had ever exerted in her whole life, but it was no use. The baby was stuck, and it was clear she didn't like being forced out of her home. Carla didn't even try to fight the tears anymore. She had managed to go a whole nine months without crying, and it showed. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the nurses pounding on her swollen stomach that didn't even have room for food anymore and thought back to that first date with Cody.

Her friends had warned her that he was bad news; there'd been rumors that he'd served jail time for car jacking and armed robbery among other things. But he'd been a greaser, and people were hardly ever as bad as they were made out to be. At least, that's what she'd thought.

To her, he was the cool guy, the unattainable guy. He was the guy who rode a motorcycle and could handle two six packs and didn't need to work out to look muscular. And one day he'd asked her if she'd like to go for a beer. Her parents had yelled, threatened, grounded, etc., but she figured she was already a failure in their eyes, so why should it matter? She wasn't smart; she'd barely breezed by on a sixty average. She wasn't pretty; she was flat-chested, short and too skinny, which now made giving birth that much harder.

"_Someone get the vacuum!" a doctor yelled. "It's clear this kid ain't coming out on its own!"_ The pain was sharp, stabbing her worse than a thousand knives. She gave up trying to push and lay limp, waiting to die.

Cody had taken her to a fancy bar where he knew the owner. He'd reserved a spot way in the back just for the two of them, where no one could see them. How romantic, she'd thought dreamily as they smoked and talked about everything under the sun. She imagined how jealous all the girls at school would be when they found out Carla and Cody were a couple.

More dates quickly followed, and it wasn't long before all of Carla's spare time was spent with Cody, thinking about Cody, talking about Cody, arguing with her parents about Cody, or lying in bed dreaming of Cody. In the whole time she'd known him, he'd treated her like a princess. Even when the whole bar was a circus, he still watched his language, didn't get too drunk, and limited his hands to her arms, hands and shoulders. He was so polite.

Until that one night when she stayed over at his apartment.

It had started out wonderfully, with the two of them sitting at his table, talking and getting just the right amount of drunk. Not enough for a hangover, but enough to get a slight buzz.

"Come here, Carla, lemme show you my bedroom." She giggled deliriously. Cody's bedroom was small, with the bed smack in the middle. Dirty clothes and used cigarettes were everywhere. Sheets and comforters were strewn here and there. There was a window right above the bed, but it was so dirty you couldn't see anything out of it. He took her by the arm and pushed her onto the bed.

"Ooh, anxious, are we?" Carla drawled, cracking herself up.

"Rawr!" Cody growled playfully, tackling her. She laughed until the room began to spun, and when she calmed herself down, she noticed he was removing her short skirt. She grabbed for it, and he slapped her hand away.

"Cody, stop." He unbuttoned his pants and slipped them off. "Cody, I'm serious."

Then his shirt. _He sure had a lot of chest hair._ "Cody!"

Now his underwear. He stood before her in all his glory, his eyes glazed with liquor, and she suddenly wondered if he'd been drinking before she got there.

"Cody, please. Put your clothes on. I'm just not ready for-"

Her pleas were met with a slap to the face. "Get your clothes off, you whore."

Carla trembled. "Cody-"

"NOW!"

She'd had no choice. Six pounds and two skipped periods later, she was thrown out of her parents' house. The next seven months were a blur of working three jobs, gaining weight, and coming home to an angry, drunk Cody, who'd only agreed to let her stay with him when she threatened to go to the cops.

"_It's no use! We're gonna have to go into a C-section." _

The first time her daughter had moved, she knew there was no way she would be able to give her up. There were no words to describe the gentle, constant motions inside her belly. So many nights she'd lain next to Cody, hands on her belly, feeling her baby's heartbeat.

_She'll look just like me. I'll dress her up in pink and get her ears pierced while she's little so she can have pretty earrings. I can teach her about makeup and shopping for bras and maybe help her not to end up like me… _

"Miss? Miss Carla?" She opened her eyes. A kind nurse stood in front of her with a small bundle in her arms.

"Wha…What happened?" she gasped. She noticed the pain was gone. Her stomach wasn't lurching and contracting anymore. It wasn't hard and firm, but soft and squishy, and sagging just a bit.

"We put you on anesthesia and did a C-section. It was difficult; you had us worried for a little while there, but you and your son pulled through in the end. Now it's all over." She held out the bundle. "He's beautiful. Small, but healthy. Would you like to see him?"

Carla blinked and massaged her temples. She could still feel the effects of the anesthesia; she must have heard the nurse wrong. "I'm sorry, did you say he? As in son?"

"Yes. You have a son. Your baby was a boy." The nurse smiled proudly at the blanket that was concealing the precious little life inside. Carla's throat tightened as she realized the blanket was blue.

"There must be some mistake," Carla rasped. "My baby was a girl. You must have me confused with one of the other mothers on this floor."

The nurse looked puzzled. "Are you sure, ma'am? I wasn't there for the birth, but I'm almost positive this one is yours. He looks a little bit like you."

Carla shook her head. "I'm positive. You've got the wrong baby."

"Alright, I'll go check." She left, and Carla tried unsuccessfully to clear her mind. In a few minutes she would see her daughter for the first time. _Oh God, please help me to take care of her. I love her so much already. _

"Carla?" She turned her head to see the nurse return with the blue blanket still in her hands. "I've checked the charts, the nursery, and I've asked the other nurses, and I can most definitely assure you that this is your baby. You should be very proud."

Carla felt her heart stop. "You mean…this boy… is my baby?"

"Yes," the nurse smiled uneasily, almost consolingly. "He's got your eyes. And your hair. In fact, he has a lot of hair for a baby. A whole, thick head of it." She gently brushed his dark hair out of his eyes. "Would you like to hold him?"

Carla couldn't speak. She slowly held out her arms. She turned back the blanket and stared into those huge black eyes. Now there was no denying that he was her son. Those eyes were the same as her mother's and grandmother's and great-grandmother's. They gazed up at her in awe.

"He's been so wonderful," the nurse told her as she walked out. "Even when every baby in the nursery started wailing their heads off, he was perfectly quiet. He just sat there and took it all in."

Carla could feel hot, angry tears welling up. "This isn't…there's no way. That creature that was inside me for nine months had to have been a girl. I could feel it. She was gonna be just like me."

"A boy, huh?" She whipped her head around to see Cody standing in the doorway.

"Look who decided to show up."

His eyes snapped. "If we weren't in a hospital right now, I'd whack you a good one upside the head," he growled under his breath. "A boy? That's good. Now he'll be just like me."

Tears streamed down Carla's face, and the baby, sensing that something was wrong, began to fret. Her shoulders shook, because she knew it was true.

The baby would grow up to be just like his father. He would learn to drink and swear and gamble and talk trash. Once he learned what his little male part was for, he would use it to impregnate every innocent girl he could get his hands on. Then he would hit her and call her names and tell everyone that she was a dirty, rotten whore who deserved to get knocked up.

Carla hit the nurse button. "Take him away, I don't want to see him anymore," she sobbed.

The young nurse, not used to dealing with these kinds of situations, hesitated. "Have you picked out a name yet?"

"Oh, I don't care. I only had girl names."

"His name is Cody Junior," Cody spat.

"NO!" she screamed. Then she faced the nurse. "You name him. I really don't care anymore."

The nurse, shocked, cradled the weeping little boy in her arms as she quickly left the room. Once she had gotten halfway to the nursery, she tried to think of a name. In her family, it had been a tradition to give babies names that were in the Bible. _Hmm…Elijah? No. Mark? No. Luke? Nah. Joseph? Maybe. John? Well… _

"Johnny," she finally whispered, and he began to settle down as she typed the name onto the birth certificate.

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